UPDATED: Ivy League Tournament to Begin Thursday at Home for Softball Team

A bid for a 13th trip to the NCAA tournament will begin on Thursday for the Princeton softball team when the Tigers host the 2025 Ivy League Tournament, a four-team, double-elimination event that will run through Saturday.

Ivy League Tournament
vs. Brown, Thursday, 10 a.m., Cynthia Lynn Paul '94 Field
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Tournament to continue Friday with three games, beginning at 10 a.m., and Saturday with one to two games, beginning at 12 p.m.

Princeton has already won the Ivy League title by finishing the Ivy regular season with the top record in the league, ending at 17-4 and with a two-game edge over Harvard and Columbia. The Crimson are the tournament's second seed and the Lions third since Harvard to two of three from Columbia during their regular-season series, and Brown, which finished 13-8, is the fourth seed.

Princeton has hosted the Ivy League Tournament in all three seasons that it has been the Ivy's postseason event, and Princeton has hosted the Ivy postseason in each of the last four years. In 2022, Princeton hosted the Ivy League Playoff Series after the Tigers and Crimson finished first and second, and Princeton won the best-of-three series. In 2023, Princeton and Harvard finished with the same record, but Princeton won the regular-season series with Harvard and won the right to host the tournament. Princeton forced the 'if necessary' game with the Crimson, but Harvard won the second game to take the NCAA bid. In 2024, Princeton, Harvard and Yale all shared the title, but Princeton had the best record among the group and hosted the tournament. Harvard forced the 'if necessary' game, which Princeton won to get the NCAA bid. Princeton's four-year run of hosting the Ivy tournament is the longest consecutive run since the Ivy postseason began in 2007; no school had hosted the Ivy postseason more than two years in a row. Princeton and Harvard being the last two teams in contention for the NCAA bid for three years in a row matches the longest streak of the same two teams being the last two eligible for the NCAA bid since the Ivy postseason began, as Dartmouth and Penn met three years in a row from 2013-15.

Princeton won the season series against two of the three teams in the Ivy tournament. The Tigers swept Harvard at Cynthia Paul Field in the first weekend of the Ivy season. The fifth weekend of the Ivy season saw Columbia take the last two games of the three-game series from the Tigers, delivering the first two losses for Princeton at Cynthia Paul Field. Just last weekend, Princeton took two of three at Brown, bookending the series with wins.

Karis Ford led the Ivy in RBI in league games, with 29. That was five more than any other Ivy Leaguer, with Dartmouth's Alaana Panu at 24, and six more than any other player in the ILT, with Brown's Laurel Moody third at 23. Ford's 22 walks led the league by six over teammate Julia Dumais (16). Sonia Zhang had 13, and the next player in the ILT on the walks list is Harvard's Savannah Fitzpatrick, with 12. Brielle Wright and Brown's Alexis Guevara co-led the Ivy with nine league wins. Wright had four shutouts in Ivy games, twice as many as any other Ivy pitcher, including teammate Cassidy Shaw (two). Wright's .202 opponent batting average was a league low, ahead of Brown's Macy Borowski's second-best .206.

In Ivy League games, Princeton had the best ERA in the league, at 2.13 and ahead of Harvard's 2.92, Brown's 2.97 and Columbia's 3.94, with the top four teams in the league in that stat all having made the Ivy tournament. Princeton's .325 BA is third in Ivy games, behind Harvard (.333) and Columbia (.328) with Brown fifth (.293). Princeton led the Ivy in fielding percentage in Ivy games, at .983 and ahead of Columbia's second-best .980. Princeton also led the league in Ivy games in slugging percentage (.508), on-base percentage (.425), runs scored (133), RBI (130), walks (92), opponent batting average (.211), batters struck out (123), fewest hits allowed (111), fewest runs allowed (46), and fewest homers allowed (six).

Ford's 30 walks on the season overall are the most for a Tiger since Marissa Reynolds had 33 in 2016. Jen Babik set the program record of 35 in 1995. Julia Dumais is climbing the career walks list, entering the Ivy League Tournament with 70, the most since Reynolds finished with 88 in 2017, tying the program record alongside Tara Pignoli, who finished with 88 in 1995.

Lauren Sablone's 48 career stolen bases are the most for a Tiger since co-record holder Kaitlyn Waslawski finished with 56 in 2019. Only six Tigers have reached 50 career stolen bases with Waslawski as the only Tiger to play after 1998.

Princeton's 245 runs scored this season are the most for the program since 1996, when Princeton scored 284 runs. The program record is 402, set in 1995. Princeton's .313 BA would be the best season-ending batting average since 1996, when Princeton hit .316. The program record there is .341, set in 1995. Princeton's 15 triples this season are the most since a program-record 27 in 1995. The team's 41 homers this season are tied for the second-most in program history with Lisa Van Ackeren's first team, which hit 41 in 2013. The only team that hit more was the 2008 team, which hit 55. The team's 236 RBI this season are the third-most in program history, behind only the 1995 team's 328 and the 1988 team's 246.

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